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Sunday, February 11, 2018

Another productive club meeting yestarday. Among many other things, we managed to decide how the working class housing area will come together. Interestingly, we found out that we didn't need 11 structures to make it works. As you can see, this is quite enough to get the feeling right.

We added some mockups to see how it would look with more houses and the scene composition was starting to crumble apart. It was decided two other houses will be added on the other side of the road, but we won't expand the scene longitudinally.

As you can see, our trains now have a quite interesting backdrop in front of which they can operate.

Also, Jérôme decided to install the cement plant mockup once again to operate this part of the layout. I'd say it was a good decision because the room felt empty and it was a little bit depressing. Given I don't expect the model to be built before the end of the year, it's a more sensible decision.

I'm quite happy how the ballasted and weed-infested Villeneuve yard looks like the real thing since the cement plant is now back on the layout.

We also worked on menu details about Henri-Bourrasa overpass. Safety railing are almost ready to assemble. Oil piping connecting the pumphouse and oil reservoirs were also kitbashed from two Walthers oil loading platform. The scene is coming along well, but more on that later.

It was also decided trees in Villeneuve will have leaves (with a tender green tint characteristic of springtime). The reason is simple, we found out many of our scenes require trees to hide seems, awkward building transition with backdrop, etc. This can hardly be done with leafless deciduous trees. But be afraid, we are not changing the season. In fact, when studying the Clermont backdrop, it was clear many trees had already leaves. Since there is about a one to two week seasonal lag between Quebec City and Charlevoix, it makes sense indeed to have trees fully covered in leaves in Villeneuve.

And finally, I performed a operation session for the first time in many months. In fact, I don't recall the last time I was in charge of a train! I was quite surprised it took me more than two hours to do a full run and I wasn't following prototypical practices like setting handbrake and other such things... Once again, it's crazy how little track is required to sustain long operating sessions. If one was more prototypical and switched every industries as CFQ did, it would probably require about 3 hours to model the job. Quite impressive.

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

The CN woodchip car project is still going on. Given it is the only set of cars
missing on the layout before calling the rolling stock roster complete, I’ve
decided to work again on it as information will be available. I won’t stress
enough the help Justin Babcock has already provided and which insure these
models to be as accurate as one can be. This is even more important since these
cars have not visited Quebec City area since many years.

This is a sketch, not a scale drawing

One of the
reason why I started the project again was Julien Boily’s interest in acquiring
a few of these woodchip cars. A few years ago, printing one car in Shapeways
Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD) material was expensive… really expensive. Well over
160$ (Canadian dollars) per car and mind you, I worked a lot to make sure to
trim down any excess material I could to drop down the price. A recent visit on
my Shapeways account shown these cars could be printed in FUD for about 72$,
which is quite high, but an impressive improvement. Given the price halved over
a few years is a testimony to this technology becoming more mainstream.

In the best
of worlds, I would print prototypes, make a few silicon molds and recast them
happily. The truth behind this is I’m not equipped to do so and know very well
it would cost me a sweet amount of money just to get started, experiment and
get comfortable enough with the process to handle it with confidence. I’m
always happy to learn new things, but I’m no super hero and I still have plenty
of stuff on my benchwork (highway overpass, roads and streets, several
structures including very large ones). However, I’m open to work with anybody
wanting to push it forward.

This is a sketch, not a scale drawing

In the case
of Hedley Junction, we need about 10 cars. Given series 878 000 had 300
cars and series 879 000 had 500 cars; the ratio is 3:5. In our case, having four 878 000 cars and
six 879 000 cars would be plenty enough for our needs.

As thing
are standing now, series 878 000 (of CN Rail fame) 3D model is complete. I
still want to refine a few details, but I would call it almost ready for
printing. For series 879 000, nothing has been done yet. However, both
cars have similar features, meaning what I’ve learned on the 878 000 can
be adapted to 879 000. It is my goal that both models can be available on
Shapeways at some point.

Another step
will be to create accurate decals for these cars… That could be tricky…

Monday, February 5, 2018

As you can see, some of my projects are lagging a little bit. Mainly due to seasonal health issues but also because I'm in the process of building a new spray booth. It means many projects are stuck at the primer/paint step until the new device is up and running. It's why the Henri-Bourassa overpass project is now on hiatus.

Meanwhile, I continue assembling structures for 122th Street. So far, two garages and two houses are built. They are ready for paint and will require some additional detailing to bring life to them.

While they are quite mundane, I do take time to replicate as best as I can some features in a realistic manner. This is particularly true about roof. I probably won't surprise anybody, but flat roofs aren't flat, except if you want problems. They are generally shaped like a large rectangular funnel with a central drain. The roof slope about 2 degrees, generally more on older structures. When the roof is very large, multiple draining bassins are required.

That kind of detail is generally overlooked by most modellers and manufacturers. A flat slab being much easier to build than intricate facetted surfaces. However, since these small houses are low and their roofs are in plain sight when operating, I felt it was better to replicate this detail.

And don't believe it is hard to model. Here's how I do it. First, I glue a real "flat" roof about 2 mm lower than the walls top. This is for structural integrity. Then, I cut another piece of flat styrene and score it so it divide the rectangle in four triangles. Applying a light pressure on styrene, I bend each triangle to create the funnel shape. However, be careful, the goal isn't to separate the styrene parts, just bending them a little bit. You don't want them to break off. When this part is correctly shaped, I then glue it on the walls top making sure the middle touch the subroof. If required, I'll add some styrene supports along the wall perimeter to make sure the roof sits at the right height. For overhanging roofs, this isn't required.

About The Club

Our layout is about capturing small-time branchline railroading in Eastern Canada during the early 80s. Built by three modellers, this HO layout is mainly dedicated to the Old Capital former CN Murray Bay Subdivision linking together Quebec City, Montmorency & Charlevoix counties. We also share an interest in its former constituant railways including Canadian National Railway (CNR) and Quebec Railway Light & Power Co. (QRL&PCo).

The original founding crew, still in active service since February 2007, is made of Louis-Marie Huot (Provincial Government Official), Matthieu Lachance (Architect, O.A.Q.) and Jérôme Langlois-Lavoie (real-life Locomotive Engineer). Many fellow "brakemen" assist the group on an irregular basis.

A special thanks goes to the late Mr. Jean-Pierre Veilleux (†2016) who was a precious source of historic facts and a dedicated railfan since the early 50s onward.